Last race of the year for me but first in the new kit, which is extremely light. Had the age-old debate in the morning, what do I wear? I got out a long-sleeved top to wear under club vest due to hard frost Saturday morning but no frost and felt mild when I let the dog out, so switched for a short sleeve. Immediately regreted that when I arrived as the wind was howling and rocking the car and that was in the valley, the route climbs over 1’300 feet on exposed land. As we all know the weather around here is very unpredictable and by the time we started the sun was out and the wind had died down, I was dressed right, yay.
The route is a good mix of woodland, farmland, trail and road. Prefect in the summer but in winter again footwear was a big debate. Go bigger lugs for the mud or trails for the mix of terrain, I went trail as bigger lugs are slippery on tarmac and it was a little more tarmac than I would prefer. Still a great route though, the perfect local race, covering the TPT, Tin Mill woods, Hunshelf and the right way UP Pearoyd, on this side of the hill and parts of the Trunce route on the other side of the hill.
It was a sold old event, 350 participants, mainly local runners (South Yorkshire) but also some West Yorkshire teams, and individuals from London and Kent! I did my usual, positioning myself fairly near the front but not too close. A couple of female runners were just off from the word go, and I was playing leapfrog with 2 others for the first 2 miles. We all settled into our groove unfortunately that was me behind them. That’s how it finished for me in 6th place where I was from around mile 2, I did catch up to a couple on the Pearoyd climb and a steep downhill but not close enough to challenge them.
It was so nice to race on the doorstep. I ran the whole route when so many others had to walk the Tin Mill and Pearoyd climbs. Comments for spectators in Pearoyd “she’s smiling, she’s got this”, “come on Stocksbridge, you’re used to these hills”. It definitely gives you a boost knowing the route. Apart from the killer shrubs on Hunshelf that shredded everyone’s leg, there were many bloody knees at the presentation.
I pushed as hard as I could for the last 2 miles into a head wind but still had a couple of males overtake me. I finished the 7 ¾ mile, 1’335ft route in 1:10:20 to achieve 6th overall female and 2nd in age. I had a bit of an issue at the end with my watch trying to send out emergency messages to my contacts! So I wasn’t 100% sure if my watch time was correct but results have confirmed my watch was only 8 seconds over.
Although I was the one official club runner there today, it was lovely to have Heather there running for her second claim club Penistone. She finished in 1:34:14 claiming 4th place in V60, as well as others I know from Penistone and The Tuesday Club. More club runners to local races please ;0)
